Writing with Scissors is the blog site of Howard Rodenberg, MD MPH, former Kansas State Health Director and columnist for the Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS). He is a father, emergency physician, and slightly-past-fifty curmudgeon with great hair for his age. The "scissors" in question refer to those used by editors to weed out all things opinonated, controversial, or politically inappropriate...translated as "anything funny."

a new day
-
2016 is literally around the corner, leaving me with 18 months to
retirement. Its with a mixture of trepidation, expectation and hope that I
turn the page....

1 year ago

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Cat Nips: The Sequel

The lonely man with the bad heart and social isolation (see “Cat Nips," February 5th) has returned three times in the last six days. I saw him on his third visit, when he developed chest pain after receiving an injection of a blood thinner. His workup was negative, but given his history he was admitted to have his blood tests and EKG checked once more the following day before declaring him free of acute heart damage and sending him out to return again, probably after he has another shot the following day. For, as one of the nurses pointed out, “He’ll have chest pain with the shot. He’ll have chest pain without the shot. He’ll have chest pain if you get the shot.” And while I’m trying to suppress a snicker while I’m doing the paperwork…because I do feel kind of badly for him, given that he says he likes it when I take the time to talk to him in the ED and the fact that he’s going to die sooner rather than later…I’m presented with a prescription to sign. It has his name on it, and it reads, “Cats. #8. Feed as directed.”